ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the effect of fumigating with Yinxieling (YXL) in treating patients with psoriasis vulgaris and its influence on T-bet and GATA-3 protein expressions in peripheral blood monocyte (PBMC).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Western blot method was employed to detect the T-bet and GATA-3 protein expressions in PBMC of 30 psoriasis vulgaris patients before and after they received fumigation therapy with YXL, also in 25 healthy persons for controls. The therapeutic efficacy was observed and the relationship between PASI scores and levels of T-bet and GATA-3 analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After treatment, 12 out of the 30 patients were cured, 9 were markedly effective, 8 effective and 1 unchanged, the cure rate being 40.0% and the effective rate 96.7%. Level of T-bet expression in PBMC of patients was 1.7917 +/- 0.3840, which was higher than that of healthy persons (0.8860 +/- 0.1486, P < 0.01), but the GATA3 expression was lower than that in control (0.8777 +/- 0.3114 vs. 1.2384 +/- 0.1783, P < 0.01). However, the two indexes were restored after fumigation to 1.3410 +/- 0.3642 and 1.0883 +/- 0.2435 respectively, showing significant difference to those before fumigation (P < 0.01). Correlation analysis showed that PASI score was positively correlated with level of T-bet expression (r = 0.7448, P < 0.01) and negatively correlated with level of GATA-3 expression (r = -0.8291, P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Fumigation therapy is effective in treating psoriasis vulgaris, its mechanism is possibly by way of modulating the equilibrium of the transcription factors T-bet and GATA-3 protein expressions in PBMC, and rectifying the immune abnormality of Th1/Th2 subsets imbalance.</p>